While other industries are already on the road to digital transformation, the casino business is only approaching its threshold. For now, this is neither good nor bad, as the gambling industry is unique in its own right: while the digital economy continues to bite at real-life experiences across industries, land casinos remain popular and online gambling has simply become a new dimension of the classic casino experience.

The business definitely keeps pace with the times — land casinos seen a fair share of enhancements throughout the years while live-streamed online gambling now resembles the real-life experience.

Still, the gambling industry has been lagging behind in adoption of technologies that simplify operations, cut costs, and remove roadblocks in the customer experience. Today, many casinos don’t even use accounting software, moving winnings is highly uncomfortable, all the while online and land casinos are disintegrated. As modern users demand a simpler and faster experience, the casino business will have to face all these issues at once sooner or later.

From blockchain-based accounting and cash outs in cryptocurrency or tokenized fiat, to enforcing responsible gaming, let’s explore the ways blockchain helps to solve the biggest casino industry challenges and help it evolve in a meaningful way.

Blockchain Based Casino Accounting, Cash-In/Cash-Out & Casino Cryptocurrency

Accounting is the crux of casino management. Still, many land casinos approach their financial affairs and cash-in/cash-out management in a straightforward and, truth be told, downright obsolete way.

Here is how the cash-in/cash-out process looks in some gaming houses during tournaments:

1. A player enters the casino using the established Know Your Customer (KYC) method;
2. Verifies their identity at the cashier’s desk to cash in/cash out;
3. If the requested sum exceeds the set limit, the cashier calls the manager;
4. The manager invites the player to their office;
5. In a spreadsheet, the manager checks the player’s balance, approves the transaction, and then adds to or subtracts from the total sum;
6. The manager gives out or accepts the player’s cash.

Such a first-hand approach may seem reliable when a cash-out of a big sum is in question, but systems like that still lack in flexibility, functionality, and security compared to accounting solutions in other industries. So, six steps in total, two steps of verification, and three employee encounters (count in the casino guard if the house’s KYC includes them) separate the player from their money.

Some might say: if the system pulled through the times when every business transferred its operations to various software systems and legacy solutions, there must be a reason it still exists, and maybe casino accounting should be left well enough alone?

But let’s look a bit further.

When a casino chain has properties and hosts tournaments across the world, accounting issues become all the more evident.

• If a person plays in a chain’s property in a different country, transferring money is complicated, slow, and entails transactional fees. There is no simple way one can move big sums of money.
• Gambling laws differ from country to country. A player may win a substantial sum in a foreign country, but might not be able to cash out or transfer all of it back to the bank in the home country.
• The player does not control their own money like they do in their bank’s app.
• The money is not liquid. If a player gambles in casinos of one chain, but they are located in different countries, they must make calls to verify the money are in one casino to access it in the other.
• The player cannot borrow money, and if a player borrows money from another player, the operation cannot be tracked, as it is in cash.

That’s a big bag of challenges.